Kids, flying and mops.
Found on the net
" Supposedly a motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40, and a photo of his car.
Instead of paying the ticket, he sent the police department a photograph of two $20 bills. Several days later, he received a return envelope from the police. It contained nothing but another photograph — of handcuffs."
Well, kids are nuts, yep, it's decided. In the marning, I teach 3 year olds at a kindergarden. How do you dicipline a 3 year old who barely understands anything you say and 2 seconds after he does it, forgets why he's getting punished? And then says, "Sorry" just to go do it again. Luckily, I have a co-teacher, Lahden. She's their regular teacher, she teaches them Chinese in the afternoon and assists me in the morning with English, she's great. She does all sorts of stuff for me, I try to be independent as to make it easier for her and to help her if I can, but she still helps me. Today we went swimming, I had 18 kids running around naked, under the excuse that they were going to change into swimsuits, the little ones tricked me again. They went to swim class in the schools pool. Some Chinese guy did some warm ups with them, then had them splash each other to get used to the water.
Taiwanese DELIBRATELY take the fun out of things. When Lahden and I took the kids swimming on Tuesday, she took them over to the side of the pool and splashed a little water on them form the hose. But only a little, not enough to wash the dirt and oil from them before swimming, I never said anything to her about her lack of effectiveness. One of the foreigner teachers told me it's to reduce the shock on the kids, if you splash them with water first, then it won't be as stressful on their hearts when they jump into the pool... that sucks, where's the fun in that. I guess my new "Polar Bear Swim Club" isn't going to do all that well in Taiwan. I explained the concept of jumping from a hottub into a hole in the ice to Lahden and she though I was nuts, I am. I told her that Dad and I walk out into the lake when it's still frozen, she doesn't believe me, so pictures are on the way.
Back to throwing three year olds. Thye can't really write yet, so can't dicipline them with writing. Hitting/spanking is what parents do, and good old fashion common sense just isn't in their vocabularies or attention spans. Standing them up and having them put their hands on their heads seems to work alright, mop rides work as a good reward. As Joe (a 25Lb misbehaved, tiny kid who I really like) was putting on his shirt inside out, I helped him straighten it out, he wanted to do up the front buttons himself, I was mopping the floor of the drip puddles and I kept hitting the kids toes. How jumped onto the mop, a rag mop, and I just pulled it slowly, so he's sliding across the room, while doing up his shirt, the other students lined up to be next... nope.
I explained that I wanted to go paragliding tomorrow (parachuting from a mountain and riding thermals) and one student defiantly crossed his arms and shouted, "no!" Apparently, flying is impossible, Lahden tried explaining it and I had a drawing on the board, but Andrew (the kid) knows best. Jaco, please be careful next time you go flying, the rules of flight have apparently been debunked by a 4 year old. Monday, I'm bringing some pictures and video of flying, I'm going to destroy everything this kid believes in.
My Thurday nights at my out of town small country school are still great. The drive is still long and it still rains, but I love it. I am the ONLY foreigner working in the town!!! Anyways, when I pulled up, about 20 kids came running out of the school to see me! They didn't speak English, the school also teaches other things. Well, I had no chance of prep time, but I knew what I was doing anyway, so I teased the kids. The class was great, both classes. I have never seen so much respect for anyone, I showed up to class and they all stood up and bowed, "Good evening Colin Teacher" Ther were REAL bows, not the 'Teacher says I have to do this' bows. Also, I have students who have been taking English for 6 years and speak well, they have NEVER had a foreigner teacher before (Remember, I'm a foreigner in this foreign land). A super school, one of my new students is 34 years old, the other 8 are about 15 years old. The class is mature and well behaved, so it's ok.
I still don't really enjoy my afternoons, but it's not bad, it's turning for the better, they are afraid of me now, maybe because of all the writing... yep, if your finger's not on the book, you can write the whole bloody page, they can barely write, so it's good.
Also, I found the best pork on rice in Taiwan... it's in my morning school, now I know where I'm eating lunch every day... free!
I may switch to my morning school full time and quit my afternoon and evenings, less money, but it's 8:30-4:30 or something. The job doesn't pay badly, not great, but it's easy and I really like it. CAD$2500/month, 3 weeks paid vacation and one month's salary for a bonus, free snacks and lunch. For now, I like spreading out, new people, new things.
" Supposedly a motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40, and a photo of his car.
Instead of paying the ticket, he sent the police department a photograph of two $20 bills. Several days later, he received a return envelope from the police. It contained nothing but another photograph — of handcuffs."
Well, kids are nuts, yep, it's decided. In the marning, I teach 3 year olds at a kindergarden. How do you dicipline a 3 year old who barely understands anything you say and 2 seconds after he does it, forgets why he's getting punished? And then says, "Sorry" just to go do it again. Luckily, I have a co-teacher, Lahden. She's their regular teacher, she teaches them Chinese in the afternoon and assists me in the morning with English, she's great. She does all sorts of stuff for me, I try to be independent as to make it easier for her and to help her if I can, but she still helps me. Today we went swimming, I had 18 kids running around naked, under the excuse that they were going to change into swimsuits, the little ones tricked me again. They went to swim class in the schools pool. Some Chinese guy did some warm ups with them, then had them splash each other to get used to the water.
Taiwanese DELIBRATELY take the fun out of things. When Lahden and I took the kids swimming on Tuesday, she took them over to the side of the pool and splashed a little water on them form the hose. But only a little, not enough to wash the dirt and oil from them before swimming, I never said anything to her about her lack of effectiveness. One of the foreigner teachers told me it's to reduce the shock on the kids, if you splash them with water first, then it won't be as stressful on their hearts when they jump into the pool... that sucks, where's the fun in that. I guess my new "Polar Bear Swim Club" isn't going to do all that well in Taiwan. I explained the concept of jumping from a hottub into a hole in the ice to Lahden and she though I was nuts, I am. I told her that Dad and I walk out into the lake when it's still frozen, she doesn't believe me, so pictures are on the way.
Back to throwing three year olds. Thye can't really write yet, so can't dicipline them with writing. Hitting/spanking is what parents do, and good old fashion common sense just isn't in their vocabularies or attention spans. Standing them up and having them put their hands on their heads seems to work alright, mop rides work as a good reward. As Joe (a 25Lb misbehaved, tiny kid who I really like) was putting on his shirt inside out, I helped him straighten it out, he wanted to do up the front buttons himself, I was mopping the floor of the drip puddles and I kept hitting the kids toes. How jumped onto the mop, a rag mop, and I just pulled it slowly, so he's sliding across the room, while doing up his shirt, the other students lined up to be next... nope.
I explained that I wanted to go paragliding tomorrow (parachuting from a mountain and riding thermals) and one student defiantly crossed his arms and shouted, "no!" Apparently, flying is impossible, Lahden tried explaining it and I had a drawing on the board, but Andrew (the kid) knows best. Jaco, please be careful next time you go flying, the rules of flight have apparently been debunked by a 4 year old. Monday, I'm bringing some pictures and video of flying, I'm going to destroy everything this kid believes in.
My Thurday nights at my out of town small country school are still great. The drive is still long and it still rains, but I love it. I am the ONLY foreigner working in the town!!! Anyways, when I pulled up, about 20 kids came running out of the school to see me! They didn't speak English, the school also teaches other things. Well, I had no chance of prep time, but I knew what I was doing anyway, so I teased the kids. The class was great, both classes. I have never seen so much respect for anyone, I showed up to class and they all stood up and bowed, "Good evening Colin Teacher" Ther were REAL bows, not the 'Teacher says I have to do this' bows. Also, I have students who have been taking English for 6 years and speak well, they have NEVER had a foreigner teacher before (Remember, I'm a foreigner in this foreign land). A super school, one of my new students is 34 years old, the other 8 are about 15 years old. The class is mature and well behaved, so it's ok.
I still don't really enjoy my afternoons, but it's not bad, it's turning for the better, they are afraid of me now, maybe because of all the writing... yep, if your finger's not on the book, you can write the whole bloody page, they can barely write, so it's good.
Also, I found the best pork on rice in Taiwan... it's in my morning school, now I know where I'm eating lunch every day... free!
I may switch to my morning school full time and quit my afternoon and evenings, less money, but it's 8:30-4:30 or something. The job doesn't pay badly, not great, but it's easy and I really like it. CAD$2500/month, 3 weeks paid vacation and one month's salary for a bonus, free snacks and lunch. For now, I like spreading out, new people, new things.
posted by Colin at 4:30 PM
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